Could creating a hero with two dads, or giving a princess a girlfriend, be the next step? Yet Disney and other giants of children's entertainment have evolved over the decades to reflect changing norms - from including characters of many races to ditching the trope of helpless damsels in distress. But advocates note that in almost every gaudy princess film or action-packed superhero cartoon, there are relationships - moms and dads, aunts and uncles, princes and princesses - that, thus far, have quietly reinforced a very traditional standard for romantic love.

Last week, a campaign to change this caught fire on Twitter, under the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend - a plea to Disney to make one half of its beloved princess duo a lesbian in the forthcoming sequel to its 2013 animated blockbuster Frozen.Ī kids' movie may seem like the last place to be talking about sex.